Private healthcare groups criticise ‘minimum’ waiting times for NHS operations

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Private heathcare providers have warned the NHS against introducing “artificial” minimum waiting times for routine operations.

Patients are facing further delays for treatment as a number of local NHS organisations — seeking to reduce their deficits — have started informing hospitals they will only finance procedures after a patient has waited more than three months. 

Patients have a right to choose a private provider to perform a procedure if the provider has a contract with an NHS hospital. The private sector currently delivers about 10 per cent of all NHS elective care in England for routine operations, such as hip and knee replacements and cataract removal, up from 7 per cent five years ago, according to analysis by the FT. Last year alone, the private sector treated more than 1mn NHS patients.

“The government has rightly put patient choice at the heart of its reform agenda, but in artificially increasing waiting times, local NHS systems are completely cutting across that, denying patients the opportunity to choose a provider that can see them more quickly,” said one private health official.  

“This needs urgently reviewing — not least from a clinical safety perspective — to ensure that patients can access treatment as quickly as possible,” they added.

The row comes as UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer sets out the long-awaited 10-year plan for the struggling national health service.

It will detail the government’s desire to deliver three shifts: from hospital to community treatment, from analogue to digital technology and from sickness to prevention.

The plan will “fundamentally rewire” the NHS, Starmer will say on Thursday. He will pledge that neighbourhood health services will be rolled out across England, bringing various services under one roof.

Earlier this year, Starmer announced a “new agreement” to expand the existing relationship between the NHS and private groups, designed to encourage the private sector to take on more patients and reduce bloated waiting lists. 

The rollout of minimum waiting times would have a big impact on private health providers because it would remove the incentive for patients to select them for their care.

“It’s completely counter-productive to expect to be able to reduce waiting times and meet the 18-week target by 2029 while at the same time forcing activity to slow down,” said one provider.

“How would we be able to explain to patients who are living in pain and losing more of their mobility and independence every day that, although we have the capacity to help them, they will have to wait longer?”

Tim Mitchell, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, warned that minimum waiting times risked “distorting clinical priorities and leaving patients in unnecessary pain and anxiety”.

NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), which is responsible for planning, funding and commissioning NHS services within local areas, confirmed that hospitals in the region had been asked to work to a minimum wait of 13 weeks for routine care.

“We are committed to making care better, faster and more efficient, as well as prioritising more urgent treatment such as for cancer”, the ICB said. 

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England chief executive, has signalled his support for the idea of minimum waiting times. Speaking at a Health Service Journal summit in April, he said the changes would give local health leaders “the ability to say to providers ‘you might be able to do a cataract in four days, but I want you to do it in 10 weeks, because that’s what we’ve decided is necessary’.”

Health leaders have been told by NHS England to expect a “fundamental reset” to the financial regimes of local health services.

Last month, the government said it was reallocating £2.2bn previously set aside for ‘deficit support’ to healthcare in deprived communities. Officials denied this funding had been made available as a result of introducing minimum waiting times. 

Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, said: “The public need to understand why this is happening and be involved in a conversation about how this can be done fairly, and politicians need to be honest that this is the reality of running a system on a fixed budget.”

The NHS said: “There is no policy supporting minimum waits in the NHS and we will work closely with all systems to ensure they deliver the expected level of improvement in waiting times set out in our 25/26 planning guidance.”